The Teardrop Explodes - Wilder

'Wilder' was the second and final album from The Teardrop Explodes and was released in November 1981. More ambitious and experimental than the first album, it performed disappointingly reaching only number 29 in the album charts, and the first single barely made it into the top 30. The band split up less than a year after the album was released.
On the surface then this seems an odd choice for an album to reissue over 30 years later, but as is often the case, the best albums don't necessarily translate to the top sales - sometimes an album is only truly appreciated several years later, and sometimes artistic merit is never recognised with commercial success, so just because an album didn't do well when it was released doesnt mean that it isnt a great album.
Compared to debut album 'Kilimanjaro' the synthesisers play a much bigger role. There's also a significant amount of sound from the brass instruments - 'Colours fly away' is a good example of this. It's certainly a less poppy sound than the first album - it's still 80's pop or post-punk but with a slightly darker more complicated feel to it.

For this deluxe edition, the first disc contains the original album, while the second disc contains a whole host of bonus material - 18 tracks of it. In terms of bonus material, you get the B sides from the singles, and then there are a seven tracks from sessions at the BBC including a couple of songs that never made it onto the album.

I really enjoyed this album - it's hard to understand why it didn't do better than it actually did, but this re-release will give more people a chance to listen to the album, and as it's packed with bonus material then fans who have the album already are likely to find this a good purchase as all those extra tracks make it very good value even if you buy it for the bonus material alone.